Live data from Hacker News

Future of Programming Languages

c2.com

1–10 of 73 posts

Re: Future of Programming Languages

#3
post #2

This just seems like a giant incoherent wish list with no central vision or any sense of the inevitable compromise required for any language of stature.

I agree, it's basically saying that the programming language of the future should have all the good features of each language and none of the bad ones.

Re: Future of Programming Languages

#5
post #2

This just seems like a giant incoherent wish list with no central vision or any sense of the inevitable compromise required for any language of stature.

That's a feature of the original wiki [aka 'wikiwikiweb' and 'ward's wiki']. It is not a bug.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WikiWikiWeb

Re: Future of Programming Languages

#6
post #4

My person vision is lots of tiny languages that work together in such a way that you don't have to get out of their sweet spot. Of course, I'm not sure if its possible to do this nicely.

They are called Domain Specific Languages (DSLs). And it can be done reasonably well today.

Lisps are very good for producing DSLs; when you have macros you have very powerful control over the syntax and can therefore produce your own language within the language.

The Common Lisp LOOP macro is a great example of power of macros; though in that case it is debatable whether it was used for good or bad.

Re: Future of Programming Languages

#7
post #4

My person vision is lots of tiny languages that work together in such a way that you don't have to get out of their sweet spot. Of course, I'm not sure if its possible to do this nicely.

> My person vision is lots of tiny languages that work together

I personally can't work deeply in more than about 4 languages at once. This might be my memory, my experience level, or it could be a human limit, like the short-term memory 7±2 limit.

Re: Future of Programming Languages

#8
post #6
post #4

My person vision is lots of tiny languages that work together in such a way that you don't have to get out of their sweet spot. Of course, I'm not sure if its possible to do this nicely.

They are called Domain Specific Languages (DSLs). And it can be done reasonably well today. Lisps are very good for producing DSLs; when you have macros you have very powerful control over the syntax and can therefore produce your own language within the language. The Common Lisp LOOP macro is a great example of power of macros; though in that case it is debatable whether it was used for good or bad.

Sure I know about DSLs in Lisps and such, but I don't think LISP DSLs are quite on the level of SQL. If everyone creates their own DSLs I don't think it has the same impact.

Re: Future of Programming Languages

#9
From the article:

> Simple: The language of the future will have all the HolyWar features I like, and banish those that I don't. -- FillInTheBlankWeenie?

^ Only reasonable response. laugh.

There's questions all around about where domain-specific stuff is going. Regardless, I think there will be a lot more testing and program-proving.

Post reply on HN